1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus such as an ink jet printer, and more particularly, to a recording apparatus of a lateral scan type in which a recording head moves in a transport direction of a recording medium to perform recording.
2. Related Art
In the related art, there is well known an ink jet printer (hereinafter, referred to as a “printer”) as a kind of a recording apparatus in which a recording material is adhered to a target to perform recording. Recently, there has been proposed a technology in which a liquid (recording material) is ejected to a continuous recording medium (target) using such a printer to continuously print a plurality of unit images which will be used as labels by being cut later. (For example, refer to JP-A-2009-73012)
That is, in the printer as disclosed in JP-A-2009-73012, a platen is installed in a midstream position of a transport path of a continuous recording medium, and ink (recording material) is ejected onto the continuous recording medium in the state of being stopped on the platen to perform recording. Then, an ink printed image formed on the continuous recording medium is heated and forcibly dried in a forcible drying region which is a recording material fixing region installed in the vicinity of a downstream side in the transport path of the continuous recording medium with reference to the platen. Thereafter, the continuous recording medium of which the ink printed image is forcibly dried by the forcible drying region is rolled by a roll driving shaft installed on a further downstream side with reference to the forcible drying region in the transport path of the continuous recording medium.
However, in the printer as disclosed in JP-A-2009-73012, since the platen and the forcible drying region are respectively installed to occupy an independent installation space in a horizontal direction, there is a problem that the entire apparatus becomes large-sized in the horizontal direction.
Further, in the lateral scan type printer in which the recording head moves in the transport direction of the recording medium to perform recording, if it is assumed that the length of a recording region in the transport direction of the recording medium, which is secured on the platen, is represented as L, the recording medium is transported by the length L with a single transport operation. That is, the transport operation of the transport amount L and a lateral scanning (recording performance operation) by means of the recording head are alternately performed.
In this respect, when a recording surface after completion of recording enters into the forcible drying region after completion of recording, if the length of the forcible drying region is not appropriately set, at least part of the recording surface after completion of recording simply passes through the forcible drying region without being stopped, by means of the transport operation of the transport amount L. That is, the time for which the recording surface after completion of recording stays in the forcible drying region is not secured, and thus, the drying may not be sufficiently performed.